| Entry: | Began day with OMV removing the final part of unit 18309 (space 342). During this a suspected Byzantine floor tile (18309.X2) was recovered from the north of the unit (in the slightly more disturbed area in front of the northern buttress [feature 5061]) - which could have had implications upon the date and apparent level of contamination of the unit - but this is now believed to be a tile-shaped stone. A lab specialist should be able to confirm either way.
A large slab of presumed ground stone abutting the same buttress (feature 5061) has now been fully exposed - ready for excavation as part of unit 18311 - which should add to the already interesting collection of finds emerging from the fill of space 342. After another day working in the space - i.e. tomorrow, unlike today (see below) - I expect to be in a better position to offer interpretations; my movement away from the actual excavation of space 342 today means I lack any particular insight (through excavation) into the features exposed. Although, given the excitement of the faunal lab about the nature of the bone assemblage from slightly higher arbitrary layers in space 342 (which were excavated last year but have not been analysed until now), it seems fair to say that the expectation is that 342 could represent a much more rapid deposition event (or series of deposition events) than the fills of other spaces in West Mound trench five.
A reconfiguration early in the day of workload within the team - partially necessitated by the temporary loss of JFB (due to an ancle injury yesterday) - led to my moving to take responsibility for unit 18314 in (adjacent) space 343. This unit would seem to be a fairly straightforward room fill (with finds rather less intriguing than those from units in space 342), and its excavation is currently being undertaken in spits. The help of volunteer Ümriye enabled fairly rapid progress, extending the current spit north along the new step (at 691m east) that TEB and I marked out yesterday.
The presence of a pair of well developed plant roots in the middle of the southern half of 18314 was of some concern, but no pit or disturbance could be identified around them and they have therefore been assumed to be a result of seeds that escaped from sandbags between fieldwork seasons - rather than any more significant intrusion. The greater density of fill and a concentration of apparent partially-burned mud brick in a roughly 20cm arc around the south-eastern corner of the rectangular north-western burial isolation area raised suspicion of the existance of a new wall running east across space 343 (possibly connecting with the wall opposite [feature 5050 on the eastern side of space 343]), but my and TEB's belief is that this merely represents a more compacted fill - though additional caution will be advised tomorrow in case we are mistaken.
Progress in excavating the current spit of 18314 will be able to continue to the northern edge of space 343 when PTW (or JFB) completes the recording of (suspected pit) unit 18306. |
